Auburn Hills, Mich. -- So I was wrong guessing Larry Hughes was taking a handful of Advil and limping around out there for Game 5. I asked him about the foot this morning at shootaround at the lovely Palace of Auburn Hills and he told me he's getting injections of Cortisone and Novocaine so he can limp out there and he's planning on doing it again tonight.

Here's how the conversation went:

Me: Does it work?

Larry: Not really. I'm doing more for the next day to reduce the pain then.

Me: How do you weigh doing this thinking long-term?

LH: I have been thinking about it, after tonight I'm going to have to revisit it. I don't want to continue to keep the injections going.

Me: Do you have to look away when they're sticking a needle in your foot?

LH: They told me to look away but you see my body art. I'm not afraid of needles. I looked a little bit then held my head back.

Yikes. Call him fragile, but don't call him soft.

By the way, I have no idea who will win tonight because these games have been too close to call. But I can tell you the Detroit media, which in general is passionately in love with their team, has some doubters. Then again, some fully believe even without real reasons why.

You can call him a lot of things, but perhaps "Laura" shouldn't be one of them.

"At least the Scots didn't have to tune in with the rest of the country and watch their women get plowed by Longshanks and his men."~Commodore Perry on the difference between baseball's flawed economics : Indians :: prima nocta : Scots